Religion

During the two presidential debates (or should I say debates between presidential candidates?) Hillary Clinton has lambasted Donald Trump for attacking women, Hispanics, African-Americans, Muslim-Americans and the disabled. Trump has, indeed, attacked members of these groups, sometimes in disgusting ways. However, his attacks have not been categorical ones directed at entire classes of Americans. By contrast, Hillary Clinton and her close advisers have attacked broad swathes of the American population »

Professor Richard Samuelson’s closely argued Mosaic essay “Who’s afraid of religious liberty?” is must reading. In it Professor Samuelson explains the assault on our religious freedom under the ever expanding regime of anti-discrimination law and practice. I urge readers who care about the subject to read the whole thing; there is no substitute for it. I invited Professor Samuelson to write a brief introduction for Power Line readers. Professor Samuelson »

In a post below, Scott directs attention to Richard Samuelson’s Mosaic column “Who’s afraid of religious liberty?” I agree with Scott that Samuelson’s piece, which discusses the danger to freedom inherent in anti-discrimination law, should be required reading. In conjunction with that column, I recommend David Bernstein’s response in Mosiac, “How Anti-Discrimination Became a Religion, and What It Means for Judaism.” Both parts of the column — the “how” (which »

One of the surprises of the GOP primary campaign season was the strong support Donald Trump received from many—though not all—evangelical Christian voters. Maybe the so-called “religious right” isn’t as monolithic as the media supposes. In this edition of the Power Line Show, Steve Hayward interviews one of the most insightful observers of the religious right, Michael Cromartie of the Ethics and Public Policy Center. We talk about theology, journalism, »

The Supreme Court has issued a unanimous per curiam opinion in the Little Sisters of the Poor case. Rather than deciding the legal issues before it, the Court vacated the judgment of the Court of Appeals, which was adverse to the Little Sisters, and sent the case back to that court so the parties can be given “sufficient time to resolve any outstanding issues between them.” Justices Ginsburg and Sotomayor »

I’m back from my trip to “New Europe,” specifically to Prague and Krakow. I highly recommend both cities to potential tourists, and I find the concept of New Europe apt. Poland and the Czech Republic suffered grievously from the two great scourges of the 20th century — Nazism and Communism. So far, they have avoided the scourge of the present century — radical Islam. They have avoided it because Muslims »

Donald Trump’s progress toward the Republican nomination is beginning to look fated. When it comes to good luck, or divine intervention, can anything beat Pope Francis’s condemnation of Donald Trump today for supporting a wall protecting the southern border of the United States? Answering questions posed to him on the papal plane on his way back from Mexico to Vatican City, Pope Francis was asked what he thought of Trump’s »

President Obama spoke at the National Prayer Breakfast in Washington, D.C. this morning. The White House has posted the text of Obama’s remarks here. I’ve embedded the White House video below; Obama’s speech begins at about 01:49:00 and runs to 02:17:00. C-SPAN has posted the video here. I transcribed quotes from the video before the White House posted the text; they may not be perfectly accurate. Those who say that »

Michael Cromartie (“the Crom” to me for 30 years now) is the most significant person in Washington DC that you’ve never heard of. And that’s just the way he likes it. Not because he’s a backroom K Street wire puller from the shadows of House of Cards. To the contrary: he is the rarest thing you can find in Washington: a truly honest broker; a person of faith, understated on »

I have never celebrated Christmas because I’m Jewish. But Christmas has always been a big day for me. My father and my first-born daughter were born on December 25. For years, we hosted a party on Christmas afternoon to celebrate the family birthdays. Our guests were mostly Jews but with a few Christians. You might be surprised by how many people are looking for something to do Christmas afternoon. During »

After seven years of perhaps the most disappointing presidency in American history, I thought the era of Obama worship was over. At a minimum, I thought we’d seen the last story about how badly Obama wants to unite the country. But no. In a strong last-minute entry for silliest news story of the year, Greg Jaffe of the Washington Post gives us “The Quiet Impact of Obama’s Christian faith.” Jaffe’s »

If this account of the White House Hanukkah party is accurate, then President Obama’s politicization of everything has reached a new low. According to Daniel Greenfield: Obama’s own remarks were boilerplate inoffensive stuff. Israel’s President Rivlin, a political hack who desperately sucks up to the media, was equally insipid. But the White House chose Susan Talve to light the Menorah. Talve is a member of the anti-Israel group T’ruah which »

We’ve all seen movies in which an old-timer hears a phrase, and suddenly his thoughts take him back in time to when he heard the same words as a youngster. This is starting to happen to me. The other day, when someone wished me a happy Hanukkah (it’s still allowed, I think), I thought of an incident from 1962 (probably) involving a friendly acquaintance I’ll call Bob and a friend »

President Obama and other leftists continue to sound the alarm against anti-Muslim hate crimes. But FBI data shows that few hate crimes are directed at Muslims in the country and that many more are directed at Jews. The FBI bases its annual report on information submitted by law enforcement agencies. This year, 86 percent of the nation’s nearly 18,000 law enforcement agencies provided hate crime reports for 2014 to the »

Steve wrote here about the “best practice” guidelines for December holiday parties issued by the Office of Diversity and Inclusion at the University of Tennessee at Knoxville. Now, Cornell University has extended this ridiculous mindset beyond the realm of community events like parties to private decisions by students and faculty members about what decorations to display. Blake Neff of the Daily Caller reports: The guidelines are buried inside a Cornell »

Avis has apologized for not renting a car this past weekend to Dov Bergwerk, an Israeli business executive and frequent Avis customer. I described Avis’ refusal here. Avis issued the following statement: We have investigated the denial of a rental that recently occurred in Manhattan. We have found that we have been inconsistent in applying our policies with respect to documentation requirements with this customer, who has rented from us »

This is one of those news stories that you think must have originated at The Onion, but I am pretty sure it is legitimate. Either that, or someone has hacked the Associated Press’s computers: The Church of England is threatening legal action over the rejection of a one-minute film featuring the Lord’s Prayer that it wanted to run before showings of the new Star Wars film that opens shortly before »